A refrigerator is an appliance used for storing food at a low temperature and may be configured to store food (or other items) in a frozen state or a refrigerated state depending on the type of food to be stored. The inside of the refrigerator is cooled by circulating cold air that can be continuously generated through a heat exchange process by using a refrigerant. During operation, the refrigerant goes through repetitive cycles of compression, condensation, expansion and evaporation. The cold air supplied into the refrigerator is uniformly distributed by convection. Accordingly, the items placed in the refrigerator can be stored at a desired low temperature.
A main body of the refrigerator may have a rectangular parallel-piped shape with an open front surface. Typically, the main body encloses a refrigeration compartment (or refrigeration compartment) and freezer, each with its own door. The refrigerator may include a plurality of drawers, shelves, vegetable compartments and the like for sorting and storing different types of objects.
Conventionally, top mount type refrigerators were popular, with a freezer positioned at an upper side and a refrigeration compartment positioned at a lower side. Recently, bottom freezer type refrigerators have been developed, where the freezer is located at the lower side. A bottom freezer type refrigerator provides the advantage that a user can conveniently access the refrigerator in general. However, a user often needs to lower down or bend down to access the freezer, e.g., for taking ice from it.
Some bottom freezer type refrigerators have an ice dispenser located at the refrigeration compartment disposed at the upper side of the refrigerator. In such a refrigerator, the ice maker used to make ice may be disposed on the refrigeration compartment door or inside the refrigeration compartment.
Ice made by the ice maker may be stored in an ice storage space and transferred to an ice crushing space through a pathway and moved by rotation of an auger. In the ice crushing space, ice can be crushed by a plurality of rotational cutters and a fixed cutter. The rotational cutters are spaced apart from each other at a regular interval. This can reduce the load that may be generated during an ice crushing operation. However, in this configuration, the flow of cold air from the pathway is undesirably disturbed.
Patent Document 1: Korean Patent No. 10-2012-0080722 (Published on Jul. 18, 2012)